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Language and Mind Decolonization: A Sure Way to Africa’s 

Language Development 

Cecilia A. Eme1, Iwuchukwu C. Uwaezuoke2 

Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka1 Ebonyi State University, 

Abakaliki2 

ca.eme@unizik.edu.ng1, iwuchukwuchinenye@yahoo.com2 

  

Abstract 
Almost every African country was colonized at a point in history. 

Colonization makes the colonized subservient to the colonizer, who 

determines their linguistic, cultural, social, political, religious and 

economic life and development. Colonization, bad as it is, goes 

beyond these to a worse scenario called language and mind 

colonization. This is more like leading the colonized into 

psychological bondage where the colonizer makes them have a 

sense of being inferior and less a human capable of engaging in 

developmental strides to better their lot. Of all the colonized 

peoples, Africans seem to be the worst hit by language and mind 

colonization, with its attendant drawbacks. There is the urgent need 

to explain the issues surrounding this phenomenon and proffer 

workable solutions that will pave the way for language and mind 

decolonization in Africa. This forms the thrust of this paper, aimed 

at making Africans re-discover themselves and work towards 

developing their countries by themselves rather than go begging for 

aids from their erstwhile colonial masters; as no one loves them 

enough to do it for them. Data were sourced mainly from our direct 

observation of Nigerians, internet materials, local and foreign 

media write-ups and broadcasts. After descriptive analysis of data, 

the paper discovered that Africans are no less endowed than their 

mailto:ca.eme@unizik.edu.ng1


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colonizers and so, with proper language and mind decolonization 

through sensitization, Africans would not only improve themselves 

and their environment but also develop their countries to join the 

comity of developed nations. 

Keywords: Africa, language, mind, colonization, decolonization, 

development 

 

1. Introduction 
Language is the powerful tool for communication. It has a direct 

relationship with thought and social environment. Thus, it could be 

positively or negatively manipulated for or against societal 

development. Colonizers often tilt towards negative manipulation in 

order to achieve their numerous goals, particularly the psychological 

defeat of the colonized. Almost every African country was 

colonized at one point in history or another. For instance, between 

18th and 19th centuries, Nigeria and Ghana were British colonies. 

France colonized Benin Republic and parts of Ivory Coast. Between 

1848 and 1962, Algeria was a French colony (Onyekpere and 

Amadi, 2013). Colonization makes the colonized subservient to the 

colonizer. This is because the colonizer would always want to assert 

superiority to prove to the colonized that whereas he, the colonizer, 

is the master, the colonized is the servant. In most cases the colonial 

‘master’ influences and, more commonly, determines the linguistic, 

cultural, social, political, religious and economic life and 

development of the colonized ‘servant’.  

Colonization, bad as it is, goes beyond these issues of 

master/servant relationship and control of the linguistic, cultural, 

social, political, religious and economic life and development of the 

colonized to a worse scenario called language and mind 

colonization. This is more like leading the colonized into 



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psychological bondage and defeat where the colonizer makes the 

colonized have a sense of being inferior, useless and less a human 

to the point of their having a deep sense of feeling that they are not 

capable of engaging in developmental strides to better their lot.  

Of all the colonized peoples, Africans seem to be the worst 

hit by language and mind colonization, with its attendant drawbacks. 

There is the urgent need to explain the issues surrounding this 

phenomenon and proffer workable solutions that will pave the way 

for language and mind decolonization in Africa. This forms the 

thrust of this paper, aimed at making Africans re-discover 

themselves and work towards developing their countries by 

themselves. Yes, it is only imperative that Africa must be 

decolonized if visible and sustainable development will be 

achieved.  Rather than Africans and, or through, their leaders going 

begging for financial or material aids from their erstwhile colonial 

masters- who treat them like the wretched of the earth and give them 

what their country rejected-they should decolonize themselves and 

become truly independent in all facets of their lives. 

To conduct this study, the researchers sourced data mainly 

from the internet, local and foreign media write-ups and broadcasts, 

and literature. A few instances from our data collected through our 

direct observation of Nigerians may be brought into the paper. We 

subjected our data to descriptive analysis. We shall define some 

terms crucial to this study in our conceptual framework, review a 

few relevant materials, engage in a discussion on sources of Africa’s 

colonization and the strategies for decolonization, we then 

summarize and conclude the paper.   

2. Literature Review 
Language is a very powerful means through which human beings 

communicate. “Language is very important to man. … [It] is a 



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means which human beings have devised for communicating ideas, 

feelings, emotions, desires, etc. through complex vocal or written 

symbols” (Anagbogu, Mbah and Eme, 2010:1). O’Grady, Archibald 

and Katamba (2011:543) see “Language is about communication. It 

is through language that we are able to make our thoughts, feelings, 

intentions and desires known to other people.” One wonders how 

much human beings would have been able to achieve without 

language. This could be the reason Phan (2018) brings in some 

human inventions in his definition of language. He says,  

Language is a means for communication…just as 

like electricity is a means to energize a light-bulb 

or an electric stove or a motor to propel a car, bus, 

street car, or train. …Language is a means of 

communication, one which allows greater 

flexibility in expressing emotions, conveying 

information and discussing ideas. We can 

certainly communicate by pointing and grunting, 

but language gives us the ability to be far more 

informative and expressive. (36) 

Talking about language is like asking blind men to touch an elephant 

and describe it, because of the numerous ways we can look at it. For 

instance, according to Nwobu (2020:90), “The natural language of 

a people is like a name as well as a face to them.” For Robins 

(1972:24), “Our social life depends on language. …Many traditions 

treat language as a sacred thing; they are justified in so doing, for it 

is language that gives order and significance to primal chaos.” 

Language is even described as ‘the soul’ of its owners (Fafunwa, 

2005) and “a vital force for the understanding and domination of the 

world” (Agbanusi, 2009:277). We must make it clear that language 



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is a possession of humans only; thus, supporting Umera-Okeke 

(2019:13) that, “Language is … a tool for communication and this 

tool is human and can only be used by human.” This means that 

although different animals have different ways of communicating 

among themselves, it is only human beings that have the capacity 

and ability for language. 

Humans have body as well as mind and other attributes of 

their being human. Unlike the body which can be seen and touched, 

the mind cannot.The fact of its being invisible does not make it less 

important than the body. Odey (1997:84) explains this further when 

he quotes Martin Luther King Jnr. thus: 

Something should remind us once more that the 

great things in this universe are things that we can 

never see. You walk out at night and look up at 

the beautiful stars as they bedeck the heavens like 

swinging lanterns of eternity, and you think you 

can see all. Oh, no. You can never see the law of 

gravitation that holds them there. …You look at 

me and you think you see Martin Luther King. 

You don’t see Martin Luther King; you see my 

body, but, you must understand, my body can’t 

think, my body can’t reason. You don’t see the me 

that makes me me. …  

The definitions of ‘mind’ vary; often depending on professions, and 

viewpoints.  Wiktionary (online) has many definitions of ‘mind’; the 

one that interests us the most is, “(philosophy) The non-material 

substanceor set of processes in which consciousness, perception, 

affectivity, judgement, thinking, and will are based We now see that 

anyone whose mind is colonized is like a living dead, who does not 



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have any understanding, judgement, thoughts, etc. of their own. 

Such a one can definitely not ‘help’ themselves. 

Colonization is the act of ‘taking over’ a people such that the 

colonizer comes and settles or lives among the local or indigenous 

people of a particular area and, usually forcefully, establishes 

control over such indigenous people. In many cases of colonization, 

the colonizers maintain their authority over the colonized by use of 

certain regulations that make the colonized people lose their sense 

of dignity and worth. It has been vividly explained that,  

In most cases, the goal of the colonizing countries is 

to profit by exploiting the human and economic 

resources of the countries they colonized. …In the 

process, the colonizers – sometimes forcibly – 

attempt to impose their religion, language, cultural 

and political practices on the indigenous population 

(Longley, 2021).  

The colonized people could only extricate themselves from the 

shackles of colonization by making conscious efforts at 

decolonization of all aspects of their colonized lives. 

Decolonization has been defined simply as “the undoing of 

colonialism…” (www.newworldencyclopedia.org). It can also refer 

to a “process by which colonies become independent of the 

colonizing country” (www.britannica.com). In this case, Africa 

became ‘decolonized’ in 1950s and 1960s when the British 

withdrew from Africa and granted independence to its numerous 

African colonies. For us decolonization goes beyond the formal 

gaining of independence to being “the process [or act] of rolling 

back the negative effects of colonial mentality [and all aspects of 

colonized life] that are still with us in this age” (Hwande, 2018:245). 

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/
http://www.britannica.com/


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Furthermore, we view development as a positive change in 

the overall living standards of the people. Giurgi, in Aghogho and 

Ita (2017:54), sees development as “the process of economic and 

social transformation that is based on complex cultural and 

environmental factors and interactions. …It is a process of change – 

change that is positive, … change that affects the good majority of 

the people, change that is sustainable.” Since development is that 

positive change that pervades all aspects of the community and 

touches every individual, Aghogho and Ita (2017:53) aver that, “The 

concept of development has become a household affair.”    

Agbanusi (2009) uses a Shakespearean novel, Julius 

Caesar,to illustrate the power of language. After summarizing, he 

events of the assassination of Caesar, he leads the reader into the 

events of his funeral, where he uses the speeches of Mark Anthony 

and Brutus to vividly illustrate “… the fact that language is a great 

instrument of motivation and mobilization” (p. 278). Brutus uses his 

speech to try to convince the Romans that his assassination of his 

friend, with the help of other conspirators, was in the best interest of 

all the Roman citizens. He almost succeeded. However, Mark 

Anthony engages his powerful speeches to upturn the table against 

Brutus and his co-conspirators. By the narrative and illustrations, 

Agbanusi (2009:277) shows “… the extent to which language can 

be used to influence or motivate or mobilize people into accepting 

an intended view-point, and even, putting them in the mind-set to 

act in a certain way.” From this we see how the power of language 

can be used to influence people’s behaviour and their mind-set. This 

was exploited by the colonizers against the colonized Africans. 

We notice that many African countries are not making the 

needed efforts to promote and foster the development of their 

indigenous languages because of the fall out of colonization where 

the colonial masters made the language owners to jettison their 



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language in preference to the language of their colonizers. This 

happened irrespective of the fact that language marks or identifies a 

people, among other things. Hear Uyanne and Motanya (2013:173),  

Every human language spoken by individual 

person or individual society is a sublime gift 

given to define and identify the person and the 

community. …The fact is that our language is 

bound up [inextricably] with our humanity… 

[that is,] our value system and our socio-

cultural views. 

Oyeweso (2019) looks at plural loyalties and multiple identities in 

post-independence Nigeria. He believes that the nature of the 

politics, economy and other aspects of Nigeria’s existence is 

determined by the experiences the country went through in the 

course of its history. He goes on to blame colonization of Nigeria by 

the British in the 19th and 20th centuries for most of Nigeria’s woes. 

He points out that “[Nigeria] was a deliberate creation of the British 

colonial government to suit its imperial and colonial designs.” The 

colonialists did all they could to achieve their purpose of the creation 

of Nigeria. Even after they formally left in the form of granting 

independence to Nigeria on 1st October 1960, they are still very 

much with us, wielding their undue influence that is detrimental to 

the development of Nigeria and her people. 

Onyekpere and Amadi (2013) lament the negative attitude of 

the Igbo people towards their language – the Igbo language. They 

point out that Igbo, like other languages, confers a unique identity on 

its speakers. The Igbo poor attitude to their language, which results 

from the negative psycho-social effect of the English language 

andculture threatens the Igboness of the Igbo people. In their view, 

to amend the attitude, “Certainly, the Igbo need a re-orientation” 



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(p.147). This feeling expressed by Onyekpere and Amadi (2013) is 

not restricted to Igbo. We view it as an expression relevant to most 

African languages and cultures that were under the influence of 

colonization. The owners of such languages and cultures actually 

‘need a re-orientation’ in form of decolonization of, especially, 

language and mind. 

3. Discussion on Sources of Africa’s Colonization in 

Language and Mind 
Through colonization that came with evangelism the colonizers 

made the local languages insignificant and pulled theirs to the level 

of prestige through language and mind colonization. Not much about 

the local people was left untampered with by the colonizers. The 

missionaries followed the same trend by denigrating the culture of 

the people they come to evangelize and imposed their own, in 

defiance to the directive of the Supreme Pontiff, Pope Pius XII. 

According to Muonwe (2014:54), the Pope cautions that in the 

course of evangelizing a society, foreign cultures should not be 

imposed on the society. The Pope “advocates rather that missionaries 

carry out their work with due respect for the indigenous peoples and 

cultures.” Nnaji (2021) confirms the role of evangelists in this regard 

when he explains that Christianity regards cultural practices, 

including indigenous names and naming ceremony, as pagan 

practices and by this restrict converts from adopting indigenous 

names. 

We also noticed that majority of the Africans do not have 

regard for their languages, the reason being basically because of the 

negative effect of colonization on the indigenous languages. 

Africans must strive to preserve their identity by promoting their 

languages in all spheres of their lives, up to their national lives. It is 

not a thing of joy to hear that many African countries do not project 



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their indigenous languages long after they gained independence from 

their colonizers. It is a truism that “Tanzania [colonized by the 

British] is one of the few countries, along with Somalia and Ethiopia 

that promote the use of an indigenous African language as the 

medium of instruction throughout primary education” (Ideh, 

2017:91). This is a sad scenario. African children should not be made 

to learn, dream and form their personalities based on foreign 

languages – the languages of the colonizers. 

The media, due to colonial mentality, is a major source of 

language and mind colonization of Africa. They propagate 

everything from and by the colonizers as the best, while using 

pejorative language to describe all that has something to do with 

Africa. Let us take a few instances. In the television show of animal 

life in their habitat, called NatGeoWild, such terms as ‘savage’, 

‘deadliest’, ‘weird’ are used in the description of animals in Africa, 

while in Europe, projecting animals that are fighting and wounding 

or killing themselves does not attract any of such terms. Such 

situation could only be described simply as ‘animal fight club’. 

During winter, the falling of snow that covers the fields and trees and 

causing the death of some animals is often described simply as 

‘rumble’. We feel that the idea the presenters of the show create is to 

make the world know that Africa is bad. They expect Africans to 

loathe their environment and, consequently, themselves and all that 

pertain to them as Africans. 

Reports have it that Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s victory as the 

First Female and First African Director General (DG) of the 

prestigious World Trade Organization (WTO), after beating many 

others from different parts of the world, was immediately greeted on 

11th February, 2021 with demeaning language by a Swiss 

newspaper. Let us recall that the DG was appointed to the position 

on 15th February 2021 and assumed office on 1st March, 2021. One 



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wondered whether the insult on her person was meant to tell the 

world that it made a wrong choice and should not go ahead to appoint 

her, or may be to cause her to have a very low self-esteem on the 

new job. The abuse of this seventh DG of WTO, whose tenure will 

expire on 31st August 2025, was so glaring that it trended on the 

internet thus, “Swiss newspaper headlines the nomination of Ngozi 

Okonjo-Iweala for WTO Director General as, ‘This Grandmother 

will become the new boss of WTO’” pointing out that if not for her 

being an African, the headline would have projected her as “Harvard 

Economist, ex-World Bank Managing Director and ex-Minister of 

Finance…” Her comportment and outcry across the globe forced the 

Swiss newspaper to deliver apology to her by hand in her office. 

Outside of the media, colonizers also invent concepts in 

various fields of human endeavour that place them higher and above 

the colonized. For instance, in Linguistics, Mbagwu and Eme (2012) 

view the concepts used by the colonizers in describing indigenous 

languages of the colonized and the languages of the colonizers as 

they relate in Pidgin language as faulty. For instance, with specific 

reference to the Nigerian Pidgin, with the source of its grammatical 

structure as the indigenous Nigerian languages, Mbagwu and Eme 

(2012) point out that the terms ‘superstrate’ and ‘substrate’ for the 

description of English and Nigerian languages respectively smacks 

of ‘master-servant’ or superior-inferior’ social relation. Other terms, 

like describing English as the dominant language is not acceptable 

either. They argue (p.136) that, “‘Dominant’ or ‘superstrate’ seems 

to us a product of imperialism which commenced with colonization, 

at a time when ‘superiority’ or ‘inferiority’ may have been a key 

concern.” Africans should reject such demeaning or debasing 

concepts that litter the different disciplines as we have them today. 

In March, 2022, on the different WhatsApp platforms, we see 

Major Al Mustapha (rtd.), the Chief Security Officer (CSO) of the 



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Nigerian Military Head of State, General Sanni Abacha, lamenting 

on the cause of insurgency in Nigeria and accusing our colonial 

masters of playing a crucial role in ensuring that Nigeria is not 

developed. In his words,  

… Since 1972 [when] Nigeria was 12 years old as 

an independent state; with the discovery of oil and 

with the [good] performance of General Gowon, the 

then Head of State, some certain forces came 

together and said, “It will be disheartening to see us 

serve this same colony of ours as now 

subordinates.” That was why at that material time, a 

new program came up on how to dwarf Nigeria; and 

I challenge the academia, I challenge patriots, I 

challenge leaders to go and search for that document 

and look at the arrangements of dividing Nigeria, 

creating crisis, creating differences … in Nigeria 

that will dwarf us. … The fear is: “Allow this 

country to be, we will all be there as subordinates 

working for them. … No black man should be seen, 

particularly in West Africa and Nigeria; as a subject 

[none] should be allowed to grow.” …Understand 

that there is a game that will never allow us to grow. 

We will be fighting ourselves while they are busy 

taking what we have. 

This built-up non-development programme for Nigeria and many 

other African countries by their former colonizers must have 

greatly contributed to the poor state of the continent, up to this day. 

According to Ugwu (2009:195), “…it is disheartening to note that 

[Africa] is the only continent in the world that entered the 21st 



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century with all the negative human development indicators.” 

Africa must help herself and come out of her miserable situation.  

Using the colonizers language to express our Africanness in 

works of literature and other works on Africa and her peoples can 

hardly yield the desired dividend. The truth remains that no other 

language can express a thing about a people better than that people’s 

language. Eme and Mbagwu (2012:115) aver that, “The use of 

language in communication illustrates its relationship with the 

mind. … The mind here suggests creativity. … [And] literature 

depends on language”, yet African languages have not been much 

engaged by African authors in their literary engagements. This is a 

case of language and mind colonization.  

In many literary works and films involving Europeans and 

Africans, authored or directed by Europeans, African characters and 

actors are made to play the second fiddle. Where they are the 

protagonist, such a character is met with abysmal failure. The case 

is completely different for a European protagonist who succeeds 

even in the face of daunting challenges. Such characters achieve 

even the impossible and come out great achievers. This scenario is 

nothing but to create the impression in the psyche of Africans and 

African children that success is not for them. Thus, they create the 

false negative impression that success is the attribute of Europeans 

while failure is the attribute of Africans.  

3.1 Strategies of Language and Mind Decolonization in 

Africa 
Of all the strategies of language and mind decolonization available 

to Africans, we are of the view that the best approach is for Africans 

to non-violently tackle the problem headlong by asserting their 

humanness, intellectual sagacity and love for their linguistic and 

cultural identity. Our forebears were able to do this, even in foreign 



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lands. We should be able to do this to the colonizers who are still in 

our lands, either by their physical presence or by proxy, long after 

we secured our independence. If we fail to take up our rights and 

make it obvious to the colonizers or their cronies that we are 

standing up for what we are and should be, we may not be able to 

decolonize ourselves and all we stand for, especially in language and 

mind. An instance of how one of our very own, a respected African 

and our forefather we should emulate, Dr. Nelson Mandela of the 

blessed memory, was able to ‘decolonize’ himself in a foreign land 

is trending on the internet to mark his posthumous birthday. It 

involves his few encounters with his racial professor. The trending 

story is worth reproducing here: 

When Nelson Mandela was studying law at the University, 

a white professor, whose last name was Peters, disliked him 

intensely. One day, Mr. Peters was having lunch at the 

dining room when Mandela came along with his tray and sat 

next to the professor. 

The professor said,"Mr. Mandela, you do not understand, a 

pig and a bird do not sit together to eat." Mandela looked at 

him as a parent would a rude child and calmly replied, "You 

do not worry, Professor. I'll fly away," and he went and sat 

at another table. Mr. Peters, reddened with rage, decided to 

take a revenge. The next day in class he posed the following 

question: "Mr. Mandela, if you were walking down the street 

and found a package, and within was a bag of wisdom and 

another bag with money, which one would you take?" 

Without hesitating, Mandela responded, "The one with the 

money, of course." Prof. Peters, smiling sarcastically said, 

"I, in your place, would have taken the wisdom." Nelson 

Mandela shrugged and responded, "Each one takes what he 



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doesn't have." Prof. Peters, by this time was about to throw 

a fit, seething with fury. So great was his anger that he wrote 

on Nelson Mandela's exam sheet the word ‘IDIOT’ and gave 

it to the future struggle icon. Mandela took the exam sheet 

and sat down at his desk trying very hard to remain calm 

while he contemplated his next move. A few minutes later, 

Nelson Mandela got up, walked up to the professor and told 

him in a dignified polite tone, "Prof. Peters, you signed your 

name on the sheet, but you forgot to give me my grade." 

Don't mess with intelligent people; pass it on to your 

intellectual friends.... 

*HAPPY MANDELA DAY* everyone. May the Lord give 

us wisdom to respond to our haters. Don't hate back but 

apply wisdom! 

If all Africans at home or in the Diaspora are able to intelligently 

claim their right and send the right signal to the ‘abuser’ to desist 

from the ignoble behaviour, it will go a long way in solving the 

problems left behind in Africa not just by colonization of the past 

but even by the current neo-colonialism where Africans, especially 

the leaders, are often used against their fellow Africans. 

When Africans, nay Nigerians, who are leaders begin to 

behave like the colonialists of former years, they should be 

reminded in the language they understand that they are there to make 

life better for the Africans they lead. Sometimes, citizens of the 

various countries of Africa become so quiet and docile in the face of 

provocation. This could be attributed to language and mind 

colonization, and possibly economic deprivation. For instance, 

Nigerians are afraid to speak out or react in the face of misrule by 

their leaders. They are, therefore, often blamed for their predicament 



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by a very small minority that speak out, but whose voices are usually 

swallowed up in the palpable silence of the teeming majority. On 

this attitude, Odey (2007:162) says,  

All said and done, I have said it several times that 

our so-called leaders treat us the way they do 

because we have allowed them to live in a 

different world where they use our money to 

provide for themselves a superabundance of 

everything that makes life comfortable but allow 

the rest of us to lack the barest necessities that 

could sustain our wretched lives.  

Africans should rise up to the challenges of misrule by decolonizing 

their minds and employing the power of language to emancipate 

themselves from modern day colonization and stand up to their 

identity. It is only this way that they themselves can bring in the 

needed development in the African continent by non-violently 

compelling their leaders to do the needful. 

When Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was insulted by the media 

to make her lose her self-worth, she was not deterred by the abuse; 

she knew the stuff she was made off. Africans are, therefore, 

encouraged to be the best of all. All the contenders for the WTO 

Director General’s position were beaten by her. She has the African 

spirit of excellence. No African should drop this spirit for colonial 

mentality. Africans must promote and develop their indigenous 

languages bastardized in one way or the other by the colonizers. If 

they fail in this direction, they are not likely to regain their languages 

and cultures that they jettisoned in preference to those of the 

colonizers. Here, again, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s dress code 

stands out to edify her Africanness and beautiful culture.  



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The researchers’ observation shows us that in establishments 

requiring security checks, anyone carrying the identity or passport 

of our colonizers is allowed to pass through without the stipulated 

thorough security checks. We see this as the colonial mentality of 

the staff of these establishments who believe that their erstwhile 

masters are incapable of committing security breaches, or cannot 

‘condescend’ so low to commit a crime. For them, only Africans and 

their likes must be scrutinized. This observation is part of our effort 

at decolonizing Africans working in such places. Everyone should 

be treated equally.  

Concerning the Major Al Mustapha’s lamentation on the role 

of our colonial masters in entrenching crisis in Nigeria to ensure its 

non-development, it becomes clear that colonization is still with us. 

The colonizers are said to have left Nigeria on 1st October, 1960; 

but they are still in operation directly from their base and indirectly 

through their cronies who are themselves Nigerians. We are 

unequivocal in stating here that only decolonization will save the 

country and remove the colonial fetters from Nigerians to enable 

them think positive about developing the nation. 

Most of the authors that do not use African languages in their 

literary works raise some issues why African languages may not be 

‘suitable’ for their works. The issues range from non-development 

of the African languages, reducing the number of the readers of their 

works, etc. These issues could easily be addressed (see Eme and 

Mbagwu, 2012). Not properly engaging African languages in 

literary writings would become a thing of the past if African authors 

engage in concerted efforts at language and mind decolonization of 

Africa. With this determination that will launch African languages 

to the height of developed languages, there is nothing Africans 

cannot achieve with their language. The assumptions that African 

languages are inferior to other languages like English, and that 



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African languages are incomplete and, therefore, cannot be used to 

express the artistes’ intentions have been dismissed as erroneous by 

many lovers of African languages (see Eme, 2015; Ugochukwu, 

2021). 

On the portrayal of Africans as failures in literary works and 

films, African literary writers and film directors must change this 

narrative. Even in works involving only Africans as characters, the 

characters should be made to succeed in their career and other 

worthwhile ventures they set their minds to. This is a decolonization 

strategy. We appreciate some African literary artistes who have 

adopted this strategy. One of them is Idongesit Lawrence Udoh, a 

young Nigerian literary writer. She condemns this idea of Nigerian 

authors projecting their characters as eventual failures. In her words, 

trending on the internet, Idongesit Lawrence Udoh raises a pertinent 

question: 

Maybe, one day, we’ll talk about Nigerian classics and 

how they’ve been used to instill failure in the Nigerian 

youth. Because, explain to me why school literature 

always has to have a tragic end if not to teach the 

youths that ‘Failure is Imminent’. Long before we 

knew about Game of Thrones, our classical authors 

were destroying the lives of our main characters: 

Beggars’ Strike, Joys of Motherhood, Things Fall 

Apart. IN BOOKS FOR CHILDREN. We’ll read 

foreign books where the white characters [colonizers] 

go off and succeed at whatever crazy thing they want 

to do, and yet, the people who look like us, who have 

the same experiences as us, the people we identify 

with… are given failure and destruction in the end? 

Why???? 



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Unless African literary artistes adopt this decolonization strategy 

and encourage our youth to step out and aim to achieve greatness, 

with the conviction that success is assured, African hope of 

development would continue to be a mirage. African youth, if so 

decolonized in mind using the power of literary language, will lead 

Africa into its much sort after development. Their strength, 

intelligence, forward-looking spirit, development-oriented mindset 

and all the virtues lying latent in the African youth must be 

enkindled for them to make exploits hitherto unimagined. Literature 

and films can play a very vital role in this direction. 

4. Summary and Conclusion 
The study has pointed out that although the colonized African 

countries have gained their independence, they are yet to decolonize 

themselves. Africans are, by this, still ‘colonized’, especially in 

language, mind and other areas of their lives. The listed 

evangelization, the media, concepts in various disciplines, negative 

attitude of language and culture owners, programmes negative for 

African development, foreign and indigenous literary artistes as 

some of the sources of language and mind colonization of Africans. 

Africans should rise up to the challenges by decolonizing 

their minds and employing the power of language to emancipate 

themselves from modern day colonization and stand up to their 

identity. It is only this way that they themselves can bring in the 

needed development in the African continent. We agree with 

Hwande (2018:251) that, “It is only when they [Africans] change 

their minds and look back on their language and culture with love 

and admiration while charting a new course for their life that we … 

as a continent can grow” and develop to our full potentials. This will 

make us to be proud of being Africans and be proud to raise our 

heads high for who, and what we are.   



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